I don't know what I'm going to do. Ms.Rodriguez called the admissions counselor at NYU, and now the guy wants to meet with me Sunday at 1. I'm excited, but what am I going to tell my parents? Maybe if I tell them the day of, they'll feel obligated to let me go.

"You ready?" Liam asks me.

"Yeah." I grab my bags and close my locker.

"James and I will be at the diner," Violet says to him and then stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek.

"Alright," he says.

"You, too, have fun." She says before walking away. Liam looks at me.

"Let me text my parents real quick," I say.

*Can I stay a little later after school? I joined the stem team again.

*Sure!!! What time should I get you?- Mom

"What time do you think we'll be finished?" I ask Liam.

"5 maybe 6. It depends," he says.

*6:30

....

"So everyone, let's welcome our newest and oldest teammate Jayda!" The boy named Thomas says. Everyone turns to me and claps. "We are thrilled to have you back, you without a doubt are one of the best coders this school has," Thomas adds.

I smile at his comment. I look at everyone who is looking at me with bright smiles on their face. I'm not gonna lie. I thought maybe they would be a little hostile with me. I quit the team a week before the competition. Then, considering all the rumors going around about me, I thought maybe they wouldn't want to have anything to do with me.

"I'm happy to be back," I say. "So, what type of robot will we have to build?"

"Well, the goal is to build a robot that can get this ball into this net." He holds up a yellow ball and a small basketball net.

"That the 1st round of the competition?" I ask.

"Yes, they will time us. The goal is to get the ball through the net in under 30 seconds. We have 2 minutes, but we don't need that much time. In the 2nd round, they will be scoring us based on the robot's speed, how long it will take us from a distance to reach the net, and throw the ball in."

"And the 3rd round?" I raise my eyebrow

"After the 2nd round, our scores and time will be calculated up, whoever has the lowest time and highest score will move on into the 3rd round. During the 3rd round, we will be against the other final team; we will have to throw numerous balls into the net. Whomever robot has thrown the most before the timer is up will win." Thomas says.

"Sounds good," I say.

"Great, so right now, we are ordering the robot's parts so you can work with Olivia and Selena, help them pick out the wheels," Thomas points behind me. I turn my head and look at the familiar girls, they look exactly the same, and their faces haven't changed at all. Selena still has short dark hair, and she still has braces; she's had them ever since middle school. She still wears her glasses on her nose as she also did.

"Okay, everyone, let's get to work," Liam says. Everyone disperses into different parts of the room.

I walk to the back of the class where Olivia and Selena are. They both share giggles as I walk up. "Hey," I say when I get closer.

"Hey," they both say at the same time.

"So we were thinking about purchasing these," Selena says. I look at the computer screen. Omni wheels. They can't be serious. Omni Wheels are hard to control on a robot. They look cool, but you barely have control over them when driving the robot. You especially have no control over them when you code the directions into the robot. Anything is liable to happen when you aren't physically driving it. Omni Wheels have poor efficiency due to all the wheels rotating in the direction of the movement. They have to know that these aren't practical. Not if we want to win the competition.

Maybe they don't know. They are in the 11th grade. But they've had more experience, they've been on the team for 3 years. I was only on the team for a few weeks.

"What do you think?" Selena asks me.

"Yeah, those should be fine." They know what they're doing.

"Great, since you agree, maybe you can run it past Thomas," Selena adds.

"Why?" I ask.

"Well, before we purchase anything, we have to check with him first. Omni Wheels are tricky, and Thomas doesn't really want to take risks, but now since you're here and you agree, maybe he'll say yes." Oliva says.

"You think he'll listen to me."

"He will,"

"I'll talk to him tomorrow." I look over to where Thomas and Liam are. They look like they are in a serious conversation—a conversation I don't want to disrupt. A phone chimes; it isn't mine, though. Olivia picks up her phone.

"Great, Jessica isn't coming." She says. Jessica, I think back to the girl that was standing in front of me in the cafeteria. The one who ran off because Ryder and his friends were making sexual remarks towards her.

"Jessicas on the team too?" I ask.

"Yeah, she joined last year." Selena answers. "She doesn't come regularly anymore; sometimes she comes; sometimes, she doesn't."

"Why?" I ask yet another question allowing my curiosity to take over. They both look at each other and then back to me.

"Well, she never said why she doesn't come often, but we think its because she's messing around with someone on the football team," Olivia whispers.

"Oh." I really don't want to hear anymore. I know how rumors can ruin someone's life, and that's something I don't want to be a part of; it doesn't really matter what your status is in high school. Everyone believes what they hear.

"She barely even comes to school; I see her like once a week," Selena adds. "If I had a jock boyfriend, I probably wouldn't come to school either."

"Jayda comes to school, and she dates a jock," Olivia says. My eyes shoot straight to her.

"What?" I say as if I didn't hear her.

"Your boyfriend is a jock.. a football player."

"I don't have a boyfriend," I say.

"So, you are not dating Ryder Adams?" Selena raises her eyebrow.

I thought she was talking about Cale. "No. I'm definitely not dating him."

"So why did--'

The ringing of my phone cuts her off. I turn it over, and it's my mother. "I have to go to my mom's here." I hop out of the stool and grab my bag. I walk straight out the door.

Cant I do one thing without his name being mentioned? I hate that everything that happens around this school always somehow goes back to Ryder and me. All because of that stupid project.

"Jayda!" A voice call after me. I stop in the middle of the hallway. I turn around and see Thomas walking towards me.

"Gone already?" he asks.

"Yeah, my mom is outside."

"Oh, okay. Well, thank you so much for coming back. I'm really feeling confident about this robot, and we haven't even built it." He chuckles.

"Well, we picked out the wheels," I say

"Okay, great."

"We have to run them past you. Right?"

"Yeah, I have to make sure we don't waste the little bit of money we have; they gave us a really small budget this year. That big check the school got. They only used it for the new counselors, and they gave the rest to the athletes."

I shake my head in disgust. "Are you serious?"

"Yup. Most of the kids who come from rich families play sports. There's also Ashely. She's in drama, so I'm sure they also get money, private donations most likely."

"That's terrible," I say.

"Tomorrow, during lunch, can you show me what you guys picked?" He asks.

"Uhhh, sure."

A wide smile comes across his face. One of the hallway doors comes flying open. Ryder walks through it. He's all dirty; his white compression pants are covered in dirt, he is holding his black helmet in his hand. I forgot the football team practices today. I look back at Thomas. He has a weird look on his face; he is no longer smiling.

Ryder walks right up to us. "Can I talk to you?" He says to me without acknowledging Thomas. I look at Tomas and then back to Ryder; they are standing side by side. Ryder is way bigger than Thomas.

"I'm talking," I say.

"He can leave." he snaps and then looks at Thomas.

I can just go," Thomas says, he starts to back away.

I grab his arm. "No, no. We can finish talking," I say to him. It sickens me that Ryder's presence intimidates people; it makes people not be themselves. We should be able to be ourselves, no matter who we are around.

Ryder quickly pulls my hand off of Thomas. "Get off of me," I growl and then pull my hand out of Ryders grasps. "Leave me alone," I say to him.

Ryder stares at me and then at Thomas. I wait for him to say more, but he doesn't. He turns around and walks off. I wait until he turns the corner and then look back at Thomas. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine." He says. "So, tomorrow, lunch?"

"Yes, sounds good."